Stranded
by Kathryn Rayner Of Voyager
Summary: After a surprise attack, the Enterprise and Voyager crash on Tiger 4, and the two crews must learn to adjust to life on the planet while finding a way to get home
1. Stranded

Stranded

Gone. Voyager's gone. We're stranded here. No way home, just us and the crew of the Enterprise, thrown here and stranded here just like us, their ship damaged beyond the hope of repair.

The planet reminds me of New Earth, and the time I spent there with Chakotay. I smile as I remember our time together, my eyes glazing over as I watch him moving through our crew, conversing with them and helping a select few to accept our situation here on the planet we've named Tiger 4.

Much of our Engineering crew is working with that of the Enterprise's to strip down what materials that could be used from the damaged Enterprise to create shelters and homes for the two crews. The Medical Teams are treating those with minor injureies, but there was no major injuries or casualties, for which I'm glad.

"Captain." I jump, startled. Jean-Luc Picard, Captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise, is stood behind me, smiling. He embraced me in a hug and kissed my cheek. "It's good to see that everyone is okay and that no one was hurt."

"Mmm," I gaze back over our crews. "This planet reminds me of New Earth," I say softly.

"New Earth?" I just smile.

It's dark, the only light provided by the crackling fire and rising full moon. The two Engineering crews are working to put together shelters using the materials provided by what used to be the Enterprise, with four log cabins carefully constructed around the fire for the senior staff and the families.

The shelters that are being constructed out of the aluminium from the Enterprise are being constructed behind the log cabins from the rest of the crews, and a few have already been completed.

I sit next to Chakotay on a log by the fire, with the rest of the two crews that haven't yet been given somewhere to live. His arm is around my shoulders, my head on his shoulder as my eyes start to droop. Our cabin mates, Jean-Luc Picard, Beverly Crusher, Deanna Troi and Will Riker, have already turned in for the night. I want to join them in the cabin and sleep, but I don't want to leave the crews alone. Chakotay, as loyal, caring and loving as ever, stays by side.

I close my eyes to rest my aching head, and morning comes fast when the bird song wakes me to the rising dawn sunlight.

Many more aluminuim shelters had been completed during the night, but a few of the crew still dozed against the logs around the cinders what was the fire the night before. Chakotay is dozing next to me, and I smile contently, enjoying the sight of him sleeping, his face looking even more handsome than usual in the dawn light.

I start to lightly trace the tattoo above his left eye, like I have wanted to do for so long now, feeling the desire for him rise up inside me as he jumps at my touch, looking down at me with a tiredly suspicious gaze. It softens when he tries to suppress a grin at my childish wonder but can't, and I find myself starting to giggle as he tries to glare menacingly at me while grinning maddly. He starts to laugh too, and we're soon on the floor, laughing hysterically.

The crewmen who'd been dozing on the other side of the fire, jerk awake, looking around, in alarm, looking for the source of the hysterical laughing that had woken them. Some start to grin, their alarm turning to amusement as they watch us rolling in the dust, laughing so hard that tears are rolling down our cheeks. Some grow more alarmed, and others become confused, not sure whether to be alarmed or amused by our laughter.

Soon, others rise and come to find the source of the disturbance. Some, like Naomi, Tom, and Neelix, start to laugh and giggle. I know that they're at us, and not with us, but I don't care. I'm struggling to breathe, but every time I feel my laughter subsiding, I look at Chakotay, and I start to laugh again, until, finally, our laughter subsides for good, and we stagger to our feet, gasping, our sides and faces aching, our knees weak and unsteady.

It is a strange and uncomfortable situation, being stranded on an unknown planet on the far side of the galaxy from the place my crew still calls home. Much of Voyager's crew is more comfortable here, because in the time they have been in the Delta Quadrant, it has become their home and their friends and crew their family.

The clearing in which we've esstablished something similar to the colonies back in the Alpha Quadrant, and I can't help but notice how comforting it has become, how homely it has become since it was built. The cabins are warm and welcoming, and much like those in old western novels of twenty-first century Earth. The shelters are modern and comfortable, with the few simple nessecities we managed to salvage from the Enterprise.

The forest is over grown, wild and dark and only Kathryn and her first officer Chakotay have been in further than the thick outlining bushes that keep the wild animals inside the forest and away from our colony.

Much of my crew is uncertain about what to with themselves without the luxuries of a starship to help them entertain themselves, but there are a few of my crew who are working with the crew of Voyager to entertain themselves.

Worf is tackling Voyager's Chief Engineer B'Elanna Torres alongside the burnt out fire ring, the blackened cinders crackling as the wind blows over them. Beverly Crusher, is arguing heatedly with Voyager's EMH, The Doctor, outside the Medical tent that has since been set up. Reginald Barclay converses nervously with Voyager's Ensign Lyssa Campbell. I can't help but smile at how well some of my crew is starting to settle down here and make friends with some of Kathryn's crew, especially Reg Barclay.

"Jean-Luc, what are you looking at?" asks the sing-song voice of Deanna Troi. I turn around, and smile at the picture that she paints with Will stood by her side, their hands clasped between them, both smiling coyly.

"Nothing," I say, my smile growing as Will raises and accusing eyebrow at me. "I was just thinking, that's all, honest!" She grins, almost laughing at me.

"Do you want to come for a walk with us? We're going to see if we can find can find Kathryn and Chakotay."

She's running ahead of me, shrieking and squealing with uncontrolled laughter, looking over her shoulder every so often as she runs. I'm laughing too, just happy to see her happy and relaxed for the first time since New Earth. Her hair si still long, her eyes are as blue as ever, and she's as pretty as ever, the shady light and never ending down time making her seem younger than ever.

She runs into the small clearing and spins around in front of the half-built log cabin by the edge of the large lake we'd found earlier this week. I run up to her and scoop her up in my arms, spinning around until I fall backwards onto the soft moss, where we lie breathless, yet still managing to laugh, tangled up in each other.

"Look at them! They're acting like lovestruck teenagers!" hisses Jean-Luc, a slight aura of disgust, disbelief and annoyance in his tone.

"Well, I'm sure you can't honestly tell us their hasn't been a time in your adult life where you haven't acted like a lovestruck teenager, Jean-Luc, it's a crime all of us commit when we're free to fall in love," I whisper back, grinning broadly at Deanna when he goes bright red and starts to stammer a denial.

"I . . . I . . . I don't know what you're talking about, Will. It might have been a case of love at first sight for you and Deanna, but I have yet to find a woman that makes me act like a lovestruck teenager, as you call this atrocious behaviour."

"Oooh, someone's starting to turn into Seven of Nine!" giggled Deanna. I can't help but grin as her remark brings out a scowl on Jean-Luc's face. It seems that being stranded on Tiger 4 seems to bring out the more human aspects in our people that most of the crew keep bottled up inside.

They stumble tiredly out of the forest, hand in hand, smiling happily, the shadows of the forest silhouetting them against the blazing light of the fire. They sit down side by side on the log to my left and I pass Chakotay two plates of Neelix's forest mush. He hands one to Kathryn and grins at me, his dimples showing proudly.

I feel my insides warming up. He's my oldest friend, and I love him like a brother. Kathryn has been like a mother to me since we were stuck here in the Delta Quadrant; she's loving, caring, kind and gentle, beautiful, smart and helpful. They are so in love and happy together, and I couldn't wish for anything else for them.

Chakotay whispers something to Kathryn, and she giggles, shoving at him playfully. Her blue eyes are laughing, glittering happily. Chakotay grins and starts to tickle her. She shrieks at him to stop, tears of laughter springing up in her eyes, still giggling as she curls up against him, smiling contently up at him.

Seeing them so content together makes me think about my relationship with Tom. He's sat on my right, joking as usual with Harry and trying to make Seven laugh. My heart flutters as he laughs at Harry's joke, laughing harder when he sees the confused look on Seven's face. I laugh along with him. I know that I'll treasure that sight forever.


	2. The Accident

Stranded

Kathryn and Chakotay are splashing around in the water with B'Elanna, Tom, Harry, Samantha and Naomi Wildman, Beverly Crusher, Will Riker, Deanna Troi and most, if not all, of the children from the Enterprise.

Chakotay ducks Kathryn beneath the water, and she resurfaces, gasping for breath. She splashes water at him, and jumps onto his back, covering his eyes with her hands. B'Elanna grins, and climbs onto Tom's back, and Deanna climbs onto Will's, all laughing, shrieking and squealing as they splash water over each.

Seven, Tuvok and Geordi have their heads together, examining a PADD. Seven points at the screen and inputs something into another PADD that she holds in her hand.

The Doctor stands at the edge of the clearing, facing into the trees, scanning something with a tricorder, a bemused, puzzled expression on his face.

The children tumble out of the water, scrambling towards the large picnic blanket laid out with food. The adults stumble out next, talking and laughing, Kathryn riding on Chakotay's back, squealing as he tickles behind her knees. All are soaking wet and flushed, trailing a small river of water from the lake up to the picnic blanket, where they settle down on the ground behind the children.

Seven, Tuvok and Geordi explain the contents of their PADD's to B'Elanna. Sam, Beverly and Deanna converse quietly about childcare. Tom and Harry crack jokes and entertain Naomi and the children of the Enterprise. Will and Jean-Luc discuss cuisine with Neelix and Kes. Kathryn and Chakotay studied the Doctor's tricorder readings, frowning.

The Doctor, Kathryn, Chakotay, Will and Worf push their way through the overgrown bushes and low-hanging tree branches, wading through the tall plants and grasses, the sticks and twigs scratching at their skin and tangling in their hair.

The sunlight that filtered through the canopy above them was fading as the sun set over the horizon beyond the lake to their left. They had been walking for hours.

Kathryn stopped. Chakotay, Will and Worf crashed into her. The Doctor kept walking for a few paces before he stopped and turned, having realised that they were no following him. She's heard something, in the bushes up ahead, on the left hand side of the faint and fading footpath. She slips carefully, silently, down the path and around the Doctor, peering into the dark bushes where she thought the noise had come from.

The sound of a primitive twenty-first century handgun firing throws them off-guard. Kathryn screams out in pain, staggering and falling backwards, blood spilling from her side and pooling over the grass and bracken that coated the ground. Her eyes flutter and her skin starts to turn pale.

"Kathryn!" Chakotay yells, dropping everything he holds in his hands and running to her side, taking the hand that she desperately tries to hold out to him. He brushes the hair sticking to her forehead out of her eyes, his lower lip trembling in shock and distress. The Doctor pulls out his tricorder and scans Kathryn over Chakotay's shoulder.

"We need to get her back. It's going to be dangerous moving her, but we can't leave her here. Come on, Chakotay, lets get her home."

She's unconscious, almost in a coma. Chakotay watches over her, sitting by her side, always holding her hand and never moving, unless it's to whisper in her ear or to accept food or drink, though he barely eats. He sleeps with his head on her shoulder, and never complains.

Sometimes, she stirs, but only briefly. She whispers his name, squeezes his hand and tells him that she'll be alright, she promises. Beverly smiles at the irony of it all. They reminded her of Will and Deanna, when she had first met them; they had tried to deny their feelings for each other, but their love and caring for the other had always showed on their faces, and they would often remain with each other, stuck like glue together, even when one or the other was injured.

In the small space of time that she had known Kathryn and Chakotay, she had noticed many similarities between them and Will and Deanna, yet Kathryn and Chakotay were more open about how they felt, more relaxed and laid back about letting others see their wild emotions, although many of their crew said that this was one of the few times that they had seen their Command Team so happy.


	3. The Dream

Stranded

_A bird of great grace – an eagle, a hawk, a great owl of soulice – glides through the bright blue sky with me, weaving elegantly through the light fluffy, summer's day clouds with me. The sun is shining warmly, gently, on my back._

_I look down at the magestic horses that gallop through the savanna grasses, led by the strongest and fiercest. He tosses his head at me and whinnies his greeting. A great buffalo roars as his herd splashes through the lakes of the savanna, shaking water from his long fur and sending flying droplets of ice-cold water through the air, landing on my skin, but I don't find the cold and stiffness of the droplets unsettling._

_Blackbirds and Magpies fly lie above the treetops, where squirrels and other treetop dwelling animals leap through the branches and leaves that hide the rabbits and bunnies and other woodland creatures that run below the canopies from me._

_Flowers and blossom springs up along the ground and through the tress as we pass, and, as the landscape changes from the peaceful planet that has never known no pain, torment, war or destruction to be replaced by the unexplored, unknown and mysterious dark vastness known as space, the animals stay with me by my side, running and flying through space with me._

_The clouds and trees and the bright blue sky, the flowers and the blossom, the savanna and its lakes, are replaced by the darkness of the empty void between the planets known as space that's filled with stars and comets and meteors, gas giants and nebulas, suns and moons, dark matter and wormholes and black holes; and the starships of the civilisations that have long ago ventured into this void to explore and conquer the secret knowledge of life and existence that can only be found in the stars, with the billions of others that had set out searching hundreds of years ago for the same kind of knowledge, many of them harmless and friendly._

_Planets and stars and nebulas, suns and moons and whole star systems go by. The familiar space I recognize fades into unknown space. Enticed by the beauty of this unknown region of what I'm sure is my home galaxy, I look around, taking everything in with a hint of awe and admiration swelling inside me._

_The sights are beautiful: Class-M planets, some inhabited, some not, but all calm, quiet and serene; nebulas filled with rainbows of light and colour; comets and meteors, solid balls of rock shooting through the bright lights of the burning gas giant stars, flame and fire streaming out behind them as they crash and burn on a planet here, a moon over there; asteriods floating on the solar winds that guided them from here to there and everywhere._

_We land on a planet, and I can feel a ghostly, whispering body beginning to take shape around me, swirling and humming in the warm, gentle wind that blows softly around me and the animals, our not solid, not whole bodies streaming soft, white smoke in every direction._

_I can feel the strength of the buffalo and his herd flowing through me, the grace of the hawk, the speed of the owl, the magnifiecence of the eagle, the cunning of the blackbirds and magpies, the love, caring, honesty and gentleness of the woodland creatures filling my veins, giving me hope and something I never knew I didn't have._

_The horse stretches out his nose to me, and I can feel my ghostly hand reaching out to stroke him, a small smile curling my lips. The eagle settle on my shoulder, and the hawk circles low over my head before he too settles on my shoulder._

"_You are not alone, Kathryn," a voice like the wind swirls around me, warming me up inside. The eagle jumps from my shoulder and lands in a tree, stirring the leaves of the tree branch above my head. The horse bows his head, and steps back, the hawk sat on his back, cleaning his wings._

_I turn, and the wind blows gently, warmly, whisking away my voice as I breathe his name, so proudly is he stood there before me. Animals much like mine stand behind him, all of them as ghostly as me._

_He holds out his hand to me and smiles. I take his hand and he pulls me gently towards him. "You aren't alone," he whispers to me, gently squeezing my hand. "Look at the animals behind you. They define who you are: the buffalo, your strength; the horse, your leadership; the hawk, your grace; the eagle, your fearlessness; the owl, the blackbirds, the magpies, your cunning and swiftness, your intelligence; the forest animals – the squirrels, the rabbits, the chipmunks – your loving, caring, honest, gentle, friendly heart. The herds that follow the buffalo and the horse are your crew. They respect you and love you like family, Kathryn, they need you." My eyes mist over. "Let me show you something," he leads me through the forest. Our animals move through the forest around us, the birds soaring through the sky above us._

_The trees thin out, and I can see the edge of the colony. We slip through the shelters and towards our cabin. He guides me up the steps and through the door, our ghostly animals following us inside, the hawk settling on my shoulder._

"_I don't understand. What's going on, Chakotay?" I look up at his ghostly face. Before us, I see my body lying on the bed, my eyes closed, my skin pale. There's a dark pool of crimson-red blood spreading across the covers above my left side. Chakotay is sat by my side, holding my hand tightly, his eyes closed too. Tuvok sits between us, and I recognize the Vulcan Bridging of Minds. Flowers are laid out around my bed._

_He looks down at me, his face contorted in heartbroken pain. "You're dying, Kathryn. I'm here to bring you back to me, to us. We need you, Kathryn, _I_ need you," his eyes fill with tears, "please don't leave me, not now." My heart breaks and I throw my arms around him, burying my face in his chest._

"_I don't want to leave," I sob. "I love you too much, Chakotay, and my crew. What should I do, how do I make this right?" He strokes my hair and kisses the top of my head, shedding his own tears._

"_It's okay, we'll make it right, I promise, and I'll stay by your side forever. I'm not going to leave you now, my woman warrior," I smile, and pull him closer to me._

_I tilt my head up and gently kiss him._


End file.
